


Study Abroad

by Achika



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: Gen, Letters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-30
Updated: 2013-12-30
Packaged: 2018-01-06 19:30:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1110668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Achika/pseuds/Achika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something's not quite right in Kalos, but Green's probably just imagining it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Study Abroad

Lumiose was nothing like home. Celadon and Goldenrod didn’t even come close.  The tower was breathtaking in scope. Green had an excellent view of it from his room in the hotel, and he imagined that the view would be even better at night, when the tower lights shone through the darkness.

He’d only stopped in briefly to drop his things off before trying to find Sycamore’s lab. He’d gotten turned around rather quickly, after helping a lady catch her Frou Frou that had gotten away before a trip to the salon.

Luckily, the cab driver had understood ‘Professor Sycamore s’il vous plait’ even if the rest of Green’s Kalosian was not great.

“Ah, Green! Bonjour! How was your trip?” Sycamore said cheerily when Green entered the lab. He brushed a kiss on each of Green’s cheeks in greeting, which…was not something that Green was sure he would ever get used to.

“It was just fine. Long, but fine.  I have something for you from Gramps, by the way,” Green said, digging through his bag for the parcel Oak had given him to deliver.

Honestly, Green shouldn’t have to be playing mailman. It would have been just as fast for Oak to send it properly.

“Thank you,” Sycamore said, placing the parcel on the table. “But you must be hungry, and I am famished. Let’s go get some dinner, yes?”

“Sure. You hungry, Eevee?” Green asked, reaching up and scratching Eevee’s ears.

“Vui!” she said, nipping at Green’s fingers.

Sycamore led the way to the restaurant.

“Are your assistants okay with you just running off?” Green asked, taking a bite of his food.

Sycamore looked guilty, but grinned. “They’ll be fine. Tell me, how are things in Kanto? I haven’t been for…oh, has it been almost a decade now? I’m getting old!”

Green rolled his eyes at that, but considered the actual question. “Kanto’s fine. My gym is doing well. Gramps is just as annoying as ever,”

“And your mysterious Red? How is he?” Sycamore asked.

“I wouldn’t know,” Green said, stabbing his fork into the meal.

“Ah. I’ve touched a nerve. I’m sorry,” Sycamore said, looking genuinely contrite.

Green shrugged. “So what all is there to do in Kalos? I’m going to be here for a while. Might as well see the sights while I study, you know?”

Sycamore grinned. “Oh Green, where do I begin?”

 

 

_Red –_

_I’m in Kalos now, studying. You’d hate it here, I think, or at least in Lumiose. But it’s way better than a stupid mountain._

_-     Green_

 

Green spent a lot of his time at cafés studying, sitting outside when he can so that he can watch the people go by in their fancy clothes.  Eevee was at his feet, and he’d give her bits of fruit or whatever he was eating.

He sent a letter home to his grandfather, but called Daisy every other day to entertain her with stories of life in the ~exotic big city~.

In between his research, he helped around Sycamore’s lab, and in return Sycamore helped him with his Kalosian, which Green had mostly stopped studying when he finally went on his pokemon journey at age 10.

“Sycamore, what the hell! How can you find anything in here, I swear you are the most -!” Green yelled in frustration, rubbing his forehead.

“It sounds like he’s got your number, Augustine,” said a deep voice from the lab’s entrance.

Green had no idea how he’d missed the guy coming in, considering that he was tall and had  _bright red hair_.

“Oh no, I don’t need the two of you ganging up on me, Lysander!” Sycamore said, pouting.

Green sank back into the desk chair, watching the new guy curiously. He’d been in Lumiose for a few weeks now, but he’d yet to actually meet Professor Sycamore’s friend Lysander.  The two of them chatted a bit, mostly forgetting that Green was there after a brief introduction, and then went over to Lysander’s café for coffee.

 

 

_Red –_

_Prof. Sycamore’s friend Lysander is weird. I mean, you’d have to be to put up with Augustine Sycamore for so long, but still…_

_He kind of reminds me of someone, but I don’t know who._

_It’s nearly fall. Go home and stock up on supplies or your mom will cry, asswipe._

_-          Green_

 

Sycamore took Green shopping for clothes one day because he was avoiding working like the big flake Green has discovered he was. He justified it by saying that Green had been in Kalos long enough now that he should start dressing the part and be more fashionable.

Green bought Daisy a scarf, and sent it to her item box while he dropped off the latest postcard that Red probably wouldn’t read. Green wasn’t even sure why he wrote them, really. Maybe it was a way to show Red that Green wasn’t sitting around moping, that he was living an interesting, fun life without him while Red was camped out on Mount Silver.

Maybe it was just a way to gather his own thoughts together in a way that was mildly less pathetic feeling than a diary like the one Daisy had had when they’d been little.

 

 

           _Red –_

_I’ve been noticing something weird. Lots of people are starting to pop up wearing this really ugly suit in bright orange-red and sunglasses. Maybe I just don’t understand Kalosian fashion, but that is weird, right?_

~~_It looks almost like a uniform. Do you think -_ ~~

_Try not to freeze up there._

_-          Green_

 

Green took a break from studying in Lumiose to do some field research on Fairy Type pokemon for his grandfather and that meant that Laverre City was the place to be.

Route 14 was wet, and gross, and all the old grave stones gave Green some really uncomfortable memories of Lavender Town.

Valerie was happy to help, at least, eager to talk about fairy types and help out a fellow Gym Leader in need. 

 

          _Red –_

_Sycamore called on my Holo Caster – that’s a new Kalosian technology, by the way. It’s like pokegear, or phones, but with holograms – apparently all of North Lumiose’s power is out and they don’t know when it’ll be back. No one can get into the plant to investigate. He said it was a good time to leave town, considering, but I’m not so sure._

_I wonder if pokemon have taken it over, like the one in Kanto?_

_~~It doesn’t feel like that’s it, though. It's more like-~~ _

_Whatever, I’m off to trudge though knee length puddles._

_-          Green_

 

“You should really join Team Flare! It’s –“

That was all Green heard, but it was enough. He got up out of his seat and went straight back to his hotel room.

“Sycamore. Have you heard of Team Flare?” Green asked the hologram.

Sycamore frowned. “I have. They haven’t done anything to cause trouble yet, as far as I know, but I’ve been keeping an ear out, just to be safe,”

“Yeah, I doubt that ‘no trouble’ thing is going to last,” Green said, sprawling on his bed.

“I trust your instincts, Green. After all, you’ve been through this before, yes?” Sycamore said.

Green snorted. “Yeah, sure,”

“Maybe you’ll be the one to save us, you did get through Team Rocket’s defenses unnoticed,” Sycamore teased.

Green rolled his eyes, but grinned a little. “Just because I didn’t blow everything up behind me like Red did…”

“Bonne nuit, Green,” Sycamore said. “I’ll be sure to keep an eye on things,”

“Yeah, yeah, Bonne nuit,” Green said, ending the holocaster transmission.

 

_Red –_

_Team Flare is apparently a thing here in Kalos. Seems like every couple of years some idiot has delusions of grandeur, huh?_

_~~Sometimes I feel like I’m being followed, but there’s never anyone there. Why would anyone be following me anyway?~~  _

_Nothing’s happened yet, but I’m watching._

_-Green_

 

“Oh Monsieur Green, there is a letter for you!” The nurse behind the counter of the pokemon center said when he walked in.

“What? Really?” Green asked, confused.  It was still too soon to expect a reply from his latest letter to his grandfather, and anyone else would have simply called.

“Yes, here you go!” She said, handing it over with a smile.

Green opened it with a frown. There was no clue on the envelope itself about who it was from.  It was written in Kantonese.

 

_Green –_

_Come home. It’s important._

_-Red_

 

At first, Green was beyond pissed. How dare Red think he could just summon Green like that, that Green would come running! But then it faded with the revelation that for Red to have sent him the letter in the first place, he must have received Green’s postcards.  Had he seen something in them that Green had missed? Or maybe something had happened back home? But then surely someone else would have called.

So Green called his Gym in Viridian, and everything was fine there. But neither Daisy or their grandfather answered when he called, and god forbid Red have any means of contacting him other than old fashioned  _carrier Pidgey_ , so Green sighed and booked a ticket back to Kanto, left a message for Professor Sycamore, and just barely made the next flight out.

“Looks like you made it out just in time,” The lady at the baggage claim back in Kanto said. “Team Flare just tried to destroy the world and wipe out Kalos! There was an earthquake and a weapon, or something,”

“What?” Green asked. That was impossible.

“It was terrible! But a girl from Kalos stopped them. They showed her PR video on the news, I wish I could be as stylish as she is,”

Something did not sit right about the situation.

Green immediately called Daisy and this time she answered.

“Red’s not in Pallet, is he?” Green asked, suspicious and resigned.

“No? Not as far as I know, and I’m sure he would have stopped by…Why?”

“No reason. Everything’s ok?”

“Well, I’m trying to convince Grandpa he needs glasses and he’s being stubborn, but other than that, yes,”

“I figured. Well, I’ve cut my visit to Kalos short. I’ll be home soon,” Green said, rubbing his forehead.

The next call was to Sycamore.

“I’m so sorry, Green, it turns out that Team Flare was monitoring holocaster transmissions,” Sycamore said. “They must have been afraid you’d try to stop them, so they tricked you into leaving,”

“Because I have such a history of taking down evil organizations,” Green said flatly.

“Will you be coming back?” Sycamore asked.

“No, I think I learned what I needed to. I need to get back to my gym anyway.  Bonita and the others probably want to strangle me for being gone so long,” Green said.

“Well, you’re welcome back anytime, Green. You simply must meet Serena, by the way, and the others. They’re simply adorable children…”

Green came home to find the lights already on in the window. He frowned.

“What do you think, Eevee?” he asked. She puffed up her fur, ready to attack.

Green opened the door and Eevee immediately calmed. Green snorted. Some guard.

“Who’s there?” Green called out.

“PIKA!” came a cry from the kitchen.

Oh.

Green took a moment to compose himself.

“Yo, dweeb, who said you could squat at my place when I’m not here?” Green said, leaning against the kitchen entryway.

“I got your postcards,” Red said with a shrug.

“So?” Green asked.

“I heard about Kalos, too,” Red said. “You ok?”

“Fine. Oh god, move over you’re going to burn that!”

Green shoved Red and took over cooking. It was going to be an interesting night.


End file.
